Postby BellyAcheAcres ยป Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:54 pm
April is not best time of year to head out for Alaska, but us hard headed old OKIE folks did so!
Left Eufaula Oklahoma April fools day 2011and stayed several days Tinker Fam Camp in Midwest City to stock up, visit our five kids and have one of the daughters stow her gear, so she could act as referee, along the way. Cold and windy left city and by the time got to Kansas rain began. In and out of rain to wonderful campground at Oakley Kansas. From 11 until 1 severe thunderstorm passed over us. Wife and daughter took vote to go back home, but lost out to my vote and by 9am next morning on the road for Warren AFB in Cheyenne. Rain and snow showers all day, wife and daughter took vote to go back home, and by the time we got buttoned down at the Fam camp snowing pretty hard. Woke next morning to 5 inches snow on road, put the old Dodge in 4WD and away we went for Casper Wyoming. This leg pretty slow but arrived in light rain, wife and daughter took vote to go back home, as I checked in to Fort Caspar campground. Caspar to Billings broken clouds and some light rain, wife and daughter did not take vote this leg. As we passed over Yellowstone river it looked very mean, pulled into Yellowstone River camp ground and buttoned down as it began to pour down rain. Watched local Billings weather on TV and weather conditions were scheduled to get worse during night, wife and daughter took vote to go back home. Next morning called highway patrol and told 90 was closed in several places west and east of Billings and 87 north under water in several places. Got on CB to truckers and told 3 and 12 open but watch for water coming of slopes. Dieseled up, wife and daughter took vote to go back home, headed out for Great Falls. Followed line of slow going trucks and late after noon arrived Gateway FamCamp and beautiful blue sky with cotton ball clouds passing over head. Got buttoned down for 3 day R&R. Wonderful sightseeing and Missouri river was totally out of control, and local told me see had never seen the river this violent in her 60 resident years, wife and daughter did not take vote during three day stay. When we pulled out of the FamCamp began to rain lightly and by the time I got dieseled up was raining moderately hard. By the time we got to border crossing at Coutts the skies opened up and while we set in line for 2 hours and 10 minutes rain did not let up a bit. As I was going through Q&A with Canadian border patrol person, everything was going along fine until I was asked if had any bear spray or pepper spray. I indicated I had none, but mouthy daughter said she had 2 one ounce sprayers in her purse, that she had bought in Great Falls. Directed to pull into fenced in area and daughter to go inside and surrender her pepper spray, wife and daughter got out of truck in pouring rain and away they went. 50 minutes later they came back, mad as hell, and took a vote to go back home. Rain let up by the time we got to Calaway RV park in Calgary, got buttoned down and looked truck and trailer over, to see if still sea worthy. Next morning dieseled up heading for Edmonton and upon arrival found road into RV park washed out, other parks still closed, so spent night along side road, wife and daughter took vote to head for home. Next morning dieseled up and headed out for Dawson Creek weather was nice but cool. (In hindsite we got on the road north to Alaska 3 weeks to early, as we had limited RV park access before first of May, and needless to say lots of votes taken to head for home.) Arrived mile 0 RV park worked my way, in 4WD, across bar ditches, axle braking pot holes to assigned 5 day parking location. Five day weather was excellent, got chance to recharge our batteries and relax and unwind and see the sites. Found the FlyJ bulk fuel site several miles out of town and dieseled up last night in Dawson. Over the next 4 days we drove the Alaska Hwy via Fort Nelson to Watson Lake finding ever opportunity we could to, unhook, get out take in the scenery visit with locals and spread some wealth, the road was good and fresh repairs were everywhere. Found a limit service RV park in Watson Lake and put down roots for 5 days. Amongst snow showers, we heard that Haines Junction road might still be closed or hazardous for RV vehicles.
Before you ever leave home make a sign with your name, travel date and address on it, have a battery screwdriver and at the sign post in Watson Lake place your sign up with thousands of other signs and license plates, this is a must attraction to see! Slow driving on accessible back roads is a must, if you are interested in viewing and taking pics of wild life and flora. It got to the point that excitement of seeing some critter waned and we began to act like locals, look, take pic and move on. Wearing out our welcome, dieseled up and took 3 days to get to Whitehorse where we stayed 3 days at Hi Country RV park to look around and act like locals. News not good on road by Destruction Bay and Kluane Village to Alaska border. This area was wash board gravel, ice heaved roadway, 24 seven road repair crews and camping in place on road as it was being repaired going west. Beautiful country lake was frozen along edge and sheep or goats feeding or laying on slopes several thousand feet above roadway.
Two days of following behind repair crews, we finally got to Alaska border and asphalt roadway. Got to Tok mid morning and found RV park for one night. Unhooked and went exploring as this would be on our way back home and wanted to scope out. Left next morning and drove to Eielson AFB FamCamp for a 14 day stay and see Santa Claus, North Pole, Fairbanks and surrounding sites and dining joints, some of the information we had gotten was hype,but most was as advertised. Also 4 days would be used up traveling Dalton Hwy to Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay where we had over night lodging reservation. To really get the full measure of the Fairbanks area better weather and more time is really necessary, low ceilings and misty weather took away some of the joy of being around Fairbanks. Dieseled up and headed south on Hwy 3 to Denali RV park for a 4 day stay. Drove where we could then made mistake and bought big buck tickets to ride bus to roads end at Kantishna. Was a 3,000 foot ceiling day and wife never got any good pics of higher elevations with her 500mm lens and me with spotting scope, real bummer! When we dieseled up and left park for Anchorage down just north of Talkeetna Mt. McKinley came in view from side of Hwy 3. Wife,with grin on face, had field day taking pics with her super duper lens and I and daughter got chance to look-over the big hill with scope, only cost lost travel time to Anchorage, but what a site that hill is! Arriving Elmendorf AFB FamCamp buttoned down for 7 night stay. Had a long list of sites to see, go play with reindeer and muskox eat at some recommended joints and drive to locations not normally on tourist list of places. Traffic as bad as in lower 48 and you need to pick your time to be on hwys and off, such as rush hour in and rush hour out! The drive to Whittier is a must, to your right is large bay where whales are often observed and certain time of year bore tides observed. On the way to Whittier a glacier observation area present and some times chunk of ice within throwing distance from shore, must pass through railway tunnel driving on tracks and crossing your fingers that no cho-cho coming your way, ha-ha. You need to be rubber necked as waterfalls, goat, sheep and other critters may be seen as you drive along waters edge up on mountain side. When we departed Anchorage headed for Seward FamCamp for 4 days the terrain is rugged straight up-down and not for the faint of heart, but beautiful for a once in a lifetime experience. Got to go out on glacier, make a glacier ice cone with some punch mix, just aw-sum. After seeing all that we came to see dieseled up and headed out for Heritage RV Park ,Homer Spit for 7 hopefully, sunshiny days of site seeing and eating fish bought off the boat and grilled over charcoal. So-So on sunshiny, bought fish scaled and gutted and removed head at wharf sinks, put in Wal-Mart bag for transport back to trailer. Cooled down in frig and 9pm fired up charcoal, 10pm split fish in half seasoned up flesh side and placed skin side down and grilled until flaky, yum-yum good,ever evening, did not get totally dark until 2am. Their was a eagle nest on top of night light post 100 feet away from our site with 2 chicks in nest, mom and pop sure watched me closely while I was cooking! Dieseled up left Homer fat, sassy and well rested, wife and daughter never voted to head home! Drove to Valdez, Eagles rest RV park for 5 nights. Got to watch boat crash derby for couple of days when fishermen pulling nets allowed catch salmon schooling up for spawn run for just few hours each day running into each other cutting across netting areas, and cops in boats everywhere. Goats on road at summit areas licking up salt off road, had to bump into them to get through, neat! We drove all the back roads we could find and just soaked up the scenery, looked over pipeline and took hundreds of pictures. Dieseled up,picked up some fish we had purchased previous day, stuck in freezer and off we went for 2 day trip to Tok RV park in Tok Alaska. Stayed in Tok for 2 nights and drove back roads site seeing and pic taking. The Alaska roads are pretty good, you will see areas where their maybe a orange cone or orange stick in ground along side road, and if you pass by these orange devices at highway speeds you will find out in short order why they are their, as you bounce your head off ceiling, bite your tongue or momentarily loose visual acuity. The dip in the road may not be readily visible as you are rubber necking taking in the sights. Left Tok for Chicken Alaska dieseled up with extra 10 gallons in jerry cans. The almost gravel road from Tok to Dawson City, via, Chicken is the most northerly surveyed road in north america. When I left the black top 4WD preferred. 15 to 25 best speed, on coming traffic makes passage heart stopper. The other guy wants center of 1and half lane road and you just have to stop and force the fool to pull over some and let meat-head pass. At one point I set 3 minutes before butt-head understood that I was not going to roll my rig off into a canyon. Chicken is a old gold mining camp and parking is on boulder creek bottom with some rusty 12 pipe used as dividers between parking spots. My squealer would routinely go off indicating voltage dropped to 100volts. Spent one night and did not really see anything wrong with this semi boon dock experience. Drive from Chicken to Canadian border was white knuckling sharp blind turns running water over road wash out areas, butt-heads driving to fast for conditions. Road repair equipment on the move trying to grade out washboards and chuck holes. Observed 1 motor-home in canyon bottom from some previous accident, 2 trucks with camper shells and 1 tow-able also used as land fill. No problem with Q/A at Canadian customs,this time. Arrived late afternoon and 3hrs 15min later was loaded on barge to travel across Yukon river to Dawson city. Water flow was 3knts below barge safety limit as we went across, neat way to go! Stayed 2 nights at Dawson city RV park, nice place small cramped, folks mind their own business, friendly. Not much to do or see as weather turned fowl again. Poured jerry cans of diesel into truck and headed out for Carmacks RV park arriving for one night, nice clean place pretty good food at restaurant. Dieseled up next morning headed out for Whitehorse, Hi Country RV park, really nice place to stay at for 2 nights. Next morning drove down to Skagway for the day. If I had done better planning we should have brought the travel trailer to Skagway and spent several days. Just wonderful place to visit and rubber neck up and down streets and take in the sites. Really needed 2 or 3 days to do this place justice, their was more to do then we had time for. Dieseled up and left Whitehorse for 1 night in Teslin, lots of scenery and stops and goes along the way. Dieseled up for run to Watson Lake, Downtown RV park for 2 nights, excellent range of service available. Evening news indicated that Hwy 97 bridge washed out and Hwy 97 washed out in two locations south of Fort St. John and west of Dawson Creek which was our intended route of travel to Prince George and on to Kamloops. Went to mounties station in Watson Lake and found out they only come in part time, no help here! While dieseling up for next day, spoke to truck driver who had just come up Hwy 37 Cassiar Hwy from the south, he indicated go slow many stops for road work but Hwy fully travel-able, and would take us to Prince George. Off we went and Hwy37 very curvy, runs through large burnt out area and as truck driver indicated Dease Lake picked up road crews and had to stay behind follow me trucks. Very dusty and pea gravel being thrown everywhere,but we slowly moved south from one work location to another, and only had one windshield chip that needed repair. Whenever diesel was available along the way I topped off tank, and from Meziadin Junction road work had ended. Found a pull off along side a nice stream and we boon-docked for the night. Next morning made the dash to Prince George, Bee Lazee RV park for a nice one night stay. Dieseled up and took 2 and one half days to get to Kamloops, parking along side Frazier river and providential parks along the way. 2 nights at Kamloops RV park gave us some time to site see take pics and find out what makes this area tick. Dieseled up and headed out for a two day trip to Donald, which had a RV park back off in the boon-docks called Campers Haven, nice mowed weeds lots of poison oak and not another RV onsite. Spent next couple days on Hwy93/95 along Columbia river taking pics and wetting a meps spinner. Weather had been beautiful for 4 days in row and we just couldn't stand it, and we reentered US at Eureka Montana and preceded to Columbia Falls RV park for 6 night stay. Between some day to day showers we got to go through Glacier National Park after they finally got road open.This was the latest date that road had been closed to traffic since the 1950's. A sedan 2 vehicles in front of us was hit on the roof by a falling rock about the size of football, no one hurt. At Logan Pass snow on road shoulders was 20 feet high and sheep were observed 150 yards up side of mountain feeding on grass sprouts. Little food joint at Saint Mary has pretty good meal selection. When we wore out our welcome, Dieseled up and over the next 9 days made our way back to MidWest City Oklahoma, dumped the daughter and trailer-ed on to home.
ReCap
Found paved roads adequate. Unpaved or gravel or chat proceed with extreme caution. Rural Canada not noted for good information signs. GPS even gets lost up in the north country due to poor survey information in Hwy databases. Lots of uneven road surfaces that can catch you off guard if you don't stay up on the wheel. Some orange cones or flags or sticks indicate uneven surface ahead. Locals we met were helpful and nice to chat with and provide you with service you needed. Fuel in Canada and Alaska was plentiful but really expensive. Try and stop at those places that have greatest traffic flow, least chance of getting bad fuel.
Truck and Trailer got abused a lot, but neither complained or gave the 3 of us any pause.
Between 1 April and 16 August 34 days of rain 19 days of mist 9 days of snow flurries.
1 April, 1 August 1 to 3 blanket nights
Trailer tire wear 1/32 for entire trip
Helped 5 fellow travelers with flat tires. Alternator, electric impact wrench and torque wrench made fast work of R/R tire. In other words take what you don't expect you will need, someone else might need!
Thanks to Dodge
2008 2500HD Short Bed P/U
Cummins 6.7L Turbo Diesel
six speed auto transmission
Edge with Attitude engine and transmission management system
10 micron wire mesh washable oil filter
10 micron wire mesh washable fuel filter
2 Garmin GPS units
Averatec 3200 mobile laptop
Street Atlas software
Microsoft street and travel software
Trailer life navigator software
EnGenis GPS software and antenna
WiFi locator software and antenna
12v 500watt dc to ac inverter
Thanks to Keystone
2008 Springdale 28ft 2 door
Cummins 5Kw alternator
Maxxis 8008 15 inch tires
Dry and solid feel inside
during high winds and
abnormal rain conditions
we experienced. Every
device in trailer worked
as advertised.
Trip to Niagara Falls and on to Halifax Nova Scotia on the drawing board for April 2012!
Sensational! I'm planning my first trip to AK this Spring and your detail was very helpful. I hope your wife and daughter finally appreciated your persistence in moving forward.
Barbara, Florence, Rascal (bad chihuahua) and Magoo (baddest chihuahua)
2007 Pleasure-Way Ford Excel TD: Miss Daisy
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